Loretta Johnson is a labor union activist and the secretary-treasurer emeritus of the left-of-center American Federation of Teachers (AFT). [1] Throughout her 54-year career of labor union activism, [2] Johnson worked as the secretary-treasurer of the AFT, vice president of the AFL-CIO, [3] president of the Baltimore Teachers Union, and president of the AFT-Maryland statewide chapter [4] [5] and was a trustee of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. [6]
In 2014, Johnson chaired AFT’s critical race theory-influenced “Racial Equity Task Force.” [7] [8] [9] The task force’s report claims that systemic cultural and institutional racism have extended back more than 400 years in the United States [10] and that the “fight for racial justice remains the unfinished business” of both the AFT and the United States. [11]
Career
Loretta Johnson is a labor union activist and the secretary-treasurer emeritus of the left-of-center American Federation of Teachers (AFT) labor union. [12] She has been a labor union activist for at least 54 years. [13]
Johnson supports the far-left Black Lives Matter movement. [14] [15] [16] She has also claimed that “segregation is keeping educational and economic opportunities out of African American hands” across the United States [17] and said that AFT’s work to support the lives of African American women and girls must include “black transgender women and nonconforming people of color.” [18]
She has worked to advance the critical race theory-influenced concepts of racial and economic justice in her various positions with the AFL-CIO labor union, as well. [19]
Union Activism
Lorretta Johnson’s career of union activism began in the late 1960s when she worked as a teacher’s aide in Baltimore City Public Schools. There she began to organize paraprofessional workers into the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU). [20] [21] Johnson helped negotiate the first BTU contract in 1970 and went on to work as the president of BTU for 35 years. During this time she also led the AFT-Maryland statewide chapter for 17 years and represented AFT on the National Taskforce on Paraprofessional Certification in 1979. [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]
In the early 1990s, Johnson was elected vice president of AFT, [27] [28] running on a slate with then-New York City United Federation of Teachers (UFT) labor union president Randi Weingarten. Upon Johnson’s departure from AFT, Weingarten called her a “powerhouse in every sense of the word.” [29]
Johnson was the executive vice president of the AFT until 2011, when she became the secretary-treasurer. She held that role until her retirement in 2020. [30] Johnson was also elected vice president of the AFL-CIO labor union in 2011. [31]
In 2014, Johnson chaired AFT’s critical race theory-influenced “Racial Equity Task Force.” [32] [33] [34] In the task force’s 2015 report, AFT claims that racial equity cannot be separated from the critical race theory-influenced concept of economic justice. [35] The report also claims that systemic cultural and institutional racism have extended back more than 400 years in the United States [36] and that the “fight for racial justice remains the unfinished business” of the AFT and the United States. [37] Johnson is “most proud of” chairing the Racial Equity Task Force and expressed hopes that the organization’s report will be viewed as her “legacy.” [38]
In 2019, Johnson joined the executive committee of the AFL-CIO’s Department of Professional Employees (DPE) as treasurer. This executive committee helped represent DPE’s 24-member coalition consisting of more than four million professional and technical union members. [39]
She retired from her role with AFT in 2020 and worked on AFL-CIO’s executive council until her retirement in 2021. [40] [41]
Johnson has been on the board of directors of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an African American “constituency group” of the AFL-CIO since 2008. [42] She is also on the board of directors of the left-progressive environmentalist organization BlueGreen Alliance, left-of-center Citizens for Tax Justice, Child Labor Coalition, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, [43] and the left-of-center Albert Shanker Institute, a labor union think tank operated by the AFT. [44]
Previously she was a trustee of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, [45] on the board of the Faith and Politics Institute, and the assistant treasurer for the Baltimore County chapter of the NAACP. [46]
During her activist career, Johnson was also on the board of AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department and the Services Trades Department, vice president of Metropolitan Baltimore Council AFL-CIO, and treasurer of the Municipal Employees Credit Union. [47] She has received community service awards from United Way, a volunteer service award from the Maryland State AFL-CIO labor union, and a service award from the Baltimore Teachers Union’s paraprofessional chapter. [48]
Political Positions
Loretta Johnson is a member of the Democratic Party and has donated money to the Maryland Democratic Party. [49] In 2005, the Maryland Democratic Party named Johnson the labor leader of the year. [50]
In 2020, Johnson publicly supported the presidential campaign of Joe Biden (D), claiming that Biden “stands with unions.” [51] [52] In 2018, Johnson received an Economy/Labor Service Award from the Baltimore County Democratic Party. [53]
In 2017, Johnson urged delegates of the California Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, to “fight against” the agenda of then-President Donald Trump. [54] Johnson also called the Trump administration “a horror,” [55] opposed Trump administration immigration policies, [56] and supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton (D). [57]